Richard Ezike

Kendall Science Fellow

Richard Ezike is the Mobility and Equity Kendall Science Fellow with the Clean Vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. His interests lie in the intersection of equity, accessibility, and providing opportunity for every person to a robust transportation system. See Richard's full bio.

Richard's Latest Posts

I spoke with Dr. Algernon Austin*, an economist with the think tank Dēmos and co-author of “Stick Shift: Autonomous Vehicles, Driving Jobs, and the Future of Work,” to get an expert’s opinions on the future of the driving workforce. I asked him about potential impacts of AVs on the labor market and he discussed ways to provide job training opportunities for transportation workers that will be affected by the AV revolution.
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How AVs and other changes in transportation affect sprawl will depend on policies regarding land use. Why is land use policy important in realizing a positive role for AVs in a clean transportation future? Meet Jonathan Levine, a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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The widespread introduction of autonomous vehicles could potentially bring about many benefits, most importantly the benefit of improved safety. Autonomous vehicles are being tested in several states and provinces, California has been working with testing companies under a regulatory framework, while states like Arizona have allowed free reign to the companies to test the vehicles on the public roads, with a backup human in the driver seat to compensate for any failures in the software. However, what happens if the driver gets distracted and loses focus? Or when the autonomous system doesn’t have a sufficient way of warning the driver that they need to take over?
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